Shalom friends. Hey everybody. Welcome back to axcess. This is Timothy and I want to thank you for joining me and studying the scriptures today. We are Hovey. God guide us into his truth. Quick question. What were some of the big shifts you had to make in your life? Was it migrating to a new country?

Getting married, getting divorced, becoming a parent, maybe it was making a huge career change. Some people struggle when they have to shift their attitude towards somebody. Of course in a lot of these situations that I just listed, you probably have more time to prepare for those types of shifts before the occur.

How would you respond if God called you to a situation you had no real time to prepare for? Have you ever sensed God's promptings in your life where he's moving you in a certain direction that leaves you with so many questions, but for some reason you faithfully. Have you ever trusted where he's leading you back in my mid twenties, I made the decision to be single the rest of my life and just serve God.

And the year that I made that decision, God seemed to laugh at me and said, no, Tim, I have something else for you. And my eyes moved toward my friend Beverly in a way I never did. I developed some serious inclinations toward her. And it seemed to totally be against my will because I wanted to be single than just serve God.

I would never think of Beverly that way. She was my dearest closest lifelong friend, but God said, Tim, look at that. So I did. And they pleaded with God to take away the thoughts, the feelings, and just let things go back to how they were and they ask God, okay, Lord, I'm doing what you said and things aren't going so great here.

What now? And every time I prayed, I sensed his presence, bringing strength, comfort, and peace. And my spirit heard him sane. Stay, wait, and watch. Before I knew it. God worked on Bev too. And she looked at me in a way she never did before. Totally against her will then boom, we were married and boy did we face some big shifts friends?

I share the story, not to boast or gloat or anything like that. I share the story because I hope people will want to trust and obey God more and more. You might think that when Bev and I got married, that we got our happy ending, but quite the opposite. In fact, our faith in God was tested to the max for the first decade of our marriage.

And we're still being tested to this day. I do find comfort in knowing that a faith that has not been tested could not be trusted. This is how God grows our faith in him, friends by giving us opportunities to learn, to trust him. And opportunities to obey him. Our study today is called big shifts. If you need a handout for today's axcess, learn study, please visit our Facebook group Connexions, ministries of Canada, and you'll find all of her studies under the files tab and also visit our website at Connexionsministries.com.

And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to our podcast. So you don't miss out on any of our stuff. As you listen today, I do recommend having a Bible handy to follow along, and I encourage you to take some time with your own axcess communities and review this study together. Now let's get started big shifts today.

My wife Beverly will be reading in Genesis chapters, 46 and 47 from the complete Jewish Bible.

Israel took everything. He owned with him on his. He arrived at pier Shiva and offered sacrifices to the God of his father. He'd suck in a vision at night. God called Israel, Yaakov, Yaakov. He answered here. I am. He said, I am God. The God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. It is there that I will make you into a great nation.

Not only will I go down with you to Egypt, but I will also bring you back here again, after Yosef has closed. So Jaco left. Dear Shiva, the sons of Israel brought Jaco of their father, the little ones and their wives, and the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry them. They took their cattle and their possessions, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan and arrived in Egypt, Yaakov, and all his descendants with him, his sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters, and all his descendants.

He brought with him into. Please study the genealogy of Israel's children who came into Egypt verses eight to 25 on your own time. Let's continue. At first 26, Jaco sent you Huda ahead of him to Yossef so that the latter might guide him on the road to Goshen. Thus, they arrived in the land of Goshen, Yosef prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet Israel.

His father, he presented himself to him, embraced him and wept on his neck for a long time. Then Israel said to Yosef, now I can die because I have seen your face and seen that you are still alive. Yosef said to his brothers and his father's family. I'm going up to tell Pharaoh, I'll say to him, my brothers and my family's family who were in the land of Canaan have come to me.

The men are shepherds and keepers of livestock. They have brought their flocks, their herds, and all their possessions. Now in Pharaoh, summons, you and asks, what is your occupation? Tell him, your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth until now both we and our ancestors. This will ensure that you will live in the land of Goshen for any shepherd is abhorrent to the

chapter 47. Then Joseph went in and told Farrell. My father and brothers have come from the land of Canon with their flocks livestock and all their possessions. Right now, they are in the land of gold. He took five of his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation?

They answered Pharaoh. Your servants are shepherds. Both we and our ancestors and added. We have come to live in the land because in the land of Canaan, there is no place to pasture your servants. Flocks. The famine is so severe there. Therefore please let her servants live in the land of Goshen. Pharaoh said to Joseph, your father and brothers have come to you.

And the land of Egypt lies. Have your father and brothers live on the best property in the country, let them live in the land of Goshen. Moreover, if you know that some of them are particularly competent, put them in charge of my livestock Yosef, then brought in Jaco of his father and presented him to Pharaoh.

And Yacov blessed. Pharaoh Pharaoh asked Yaakov, how old are you? And Jaco replied. The time of my stay on earth has been 130 years. They have been few and difficult fewer than the years. My ancestors. Then Yaacov blessed Pharaoh and left his presence. You'll see, found a place for his father and brothers and gave them property in the land of Egypt in the best region of the country.

In the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh had ordered, you also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father's household taking full care of even the youngest. There was no food anywhere for the famine was very severe, so that both Egypt and Canaan grew weak from. Yosef collected all the money there.

Wasn't Egypt and Canaan in exchange for the grain they bought and put the money in Pharaoh's treasury. When all the money in Egypt had been spent and likewise and Keenan, all the Egyptians approached Yosef and said, give us something to eat. Even though we have no money. Why should we die before your eyes?

Yosef replied, give me your livestock. If you don't have money, I will give you food in exchange for your life. So they brought your sift, their livestock and Yosef gave them food in exchange for the horses, flocks, cattle, and donkeys, all that year. He provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

When that year was over, they approached Joseph again and said to him, we won't hide from my Lord, that all our money is spent and the herds of livestock belong to my Lord. We have nothing left as my Lord can see, but our bodies and our land, why should we die before your eyes? Both we and Arlene. By us and our land for food and we, and our land will be enslaved to Farrow, but also give us seed to plant so that we can stay alive and not die.

And so that the land won't become barren. So Yosef acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh as one by one, the Egyptian sold their fields because the famine weighed on them. So severely thus, the land became the property. As for the people, he reduced them to serfdom city by city from one end of Egypt's territory to the other, only the priests land.

Did he not acquire because the priests were entitled to provisions from Pharaoh and they ate from what Pharaoh provided them. Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Yosef said to the people, as of today, I have acquired you Andrew land for Pharaoh. He received for you to sell the land. When harvest time comes, you are to give 20%.

80% will be yours to keep for seed, to plant in the fields as well as for your food. And for that of your households, Andrew Little ones, they replied you have saved our lives. So if it pleases my Lord, we will be Pharaoh's slaves. Yosef made it a law for the country of Egypt valid to this day that Pharaoh should have 20% only the property belonging to the priests did not become pharaohs.

Israel lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. They acquired possessions in it and were productive. And their numbers multiplied greatly. Yaacov lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. Thus Yaakov lived to be 147 years old. The time came when Israel was approaching death. So he called for his son Yosef and said to him, if you truly love me, please put your hand under my thigh and pledge that out of consideration for me, you will not bury me in.

Rather, when I sleep with my fathers, you are to carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried. He replied, I will do, as you have said, he said, swear it to me. And he swore to him then Israel bow down at the head of his. Backtracking to our last study at the end of chapter 45, Yaakov had just received the shocking news from his sons.

That Yosef was still alive. At some point in the sequence of events, he quote, began to revive. Now the wording literally notes that his heart became weak. So it's safe to understand that Yaakov had fainted and then gained consciousness again. And at the last verse 28, it reads. Israel said enough. My son Yosef is alive.

I must go and see him before I die. And that brings us to the study today at the beginning of Genesis chapter 46. But before we get into observing that text more closely, let's just take a moment to get inside. Yaakov's head at this point. What was going on in his mind as he prepared to leave Canaan this land that was promised to them, and he's heading out to Egypt to meet his long thought, to be dead son Yosef, who was now the Vizier of Egypt.

Now certainly his clan, the 12 tribes of Israel would survive the famine because Joseph would be able to care for them. But what would be the long-term result of their migration to Egypt? What was Yaakov fear? At this point, let's turn back to Genesis chapter 15, verses 12 to 16. That's Genesis chapter 15, verses 12 to 16.

And here we get the prophetic words given by God to Abraham. It reads as the sun was about to set a deep sleep, fell in Avraham, horror, and great darkness came over him at a nicer to Abra. Know this for certain, your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not there. It will be slaves and held in oppression there for 400 years.

But I will also judge that nation. The one that makes them slaves afterwards, they will leave with many possessions. As for you, you will join your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. Only in the fourth generation. Will your descendants come back here because only then will the Maury be ripe for punishment?

So Yaakov knew that if his taking his family to Egypt to survive, the famines was the time and fulfillment of what God had spoken of to Abra Hom. Then he would die down in Egypt. Yaakov was essentially removing his family from the promise. To become enslaved in Egypt for an extended period of time. And he knew that for centuries would pass before his family would once again, be free and move back to the land promised by God to the Hebrew.

No. I'm sure that that prophecy had been passed down to him by his father and his grandfather, uh, that remember these three were the patriarchs, um, of Abraham Yitzhak and Yaakov, and God would speak directly to these patriarchs. And he actually calls out to Israel here. He says Yaakov Yaakov, and he answers God, he mainly here, right?

Remember when they say he nanny and they saying, here I am, I'm showing up. I'm giving you my undivided attention. I'm listing speak, Lord, God addresses his fears in verse three. He says, I am God. The God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. It's there that I will make you into a great nation.

So in preparation for this big shift, this mass migration to Egypt, Yaakov stops in beer Shiva where his father hits hack had built an altar many years earlier. And this was most likely the same altar that Yaakov made his sacrifice to God. You see, altars were always built and dedicated to specific gods.

So when the scripture refers to an altar, it's usually called by the location that it's in, um, who built it and which got it honored. So typically in the middle east, at this time, they believe that a God was for specific territory and. His power and his reach was really only for that particular area.

However, here in verse four, we read something interesting of what God says. He says not only will I go down with you to Egypt, but I will also bring you back here again. So you hope that God is setting himself apart from all these other gods that are bound by territory. Um, and he's saying, listen, I'm going to go with you.

I don't have to stay here. I'm going to Egypt with you and I'm going to come back and I will always be with you guys. This was huge. I mean, it must've been quite the surprise for Yaakov, and he's been assured that as he crosses that boundary line, leaving Canaan that his God will still be with him. This was totally unheard of in this middle Eastern cultural mindset.

How can this God just change the rules. Well, you hope he wasn't actually changing the rules because this faulty mindset is simply what kept people in bondage to their perceived reality of the way the world operates. Look at Isaiah 55, verse eight to nine. It says for my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not.

My ways says I deny as high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Yeah. What an important reminder that verse serves even for us today. If you want to look it up again, it's a, a 55 versus 18. No, it was Beverly was reading the passage. She was earlier.

You might've noticed that she had skipped over verses eight to 25. Now these verses were either added at a later date or significantly modified from the original. At a later time. This is what we call redaction. Uh, something was edited into the passage. Now, why was this genealogy inserted here? And how do we know that this is a redaction?

Well, uh, there's a few hints that we could pick up here. You notice that, um, at this point, Yosef was in his thirties. So his youngest brother Benjamin, he would have been in his twenties or so. And in this list, if you were to study it, it has a listing of Benjamin's 10 sons. Now that would have been impossible for him to have sired, so many children at such a young age.

So that's one clue that one. Um, another thing is the numbers of at all in verse 26, it tells us that all the people belonging to Yaakov coming into Egypt, his direct descendants, not counting Yaakov sons, wives totaled 66. Okay. So the sons of Yosef born to him in Egypt were to a number, thus all the people in Jacobes family who entered Egypt numbered 70.

So what's significant about seven. Well, 70 is symbolic of the totality of a cycle that also represents universality and divine ordination. And it's pretty likely that there were far more than 70 individuals who went into Egypt because genealogies and censuses generally only count the males of the population.

So here we have 66 males that are mentioned, but there were probably just as many females that were born. Um, probably even more because of the normal pattern of birth rate. Now it's likely that the full incomplete number that went down into Egypt was closer to about 150 family members or so. In addition, any small nation of that size would also have owned foreign slaves.

And we know that they had had their share of concrete over different places and, and acquiring people along the way. So their number would have been quite high, probably at least 200 people or so this just gives us a better picture of what this mass migration must've looked like traveling and all those Egyptian wagons that were sent for them and, and all their belongings and their lives.

Nothing. And nobody was left behind. Let's look at verse 28 here, who does Yaakov send ahead of himself to Yossef it's Yehuda the fourth born. Normally this is a task for the first born, but there's no mention of reunion here or Shimon and levee by tradition. It should have been one of those three to go first.

Apparently you who does assume that. So this tells us that there had been quite a big shift in the family dynamic as well. Your Huda is now acting as the first born. And finally we see Yaakov and his family arriving for this long awaited reunion. And Yosef immediately goes to the land of Goshen and this place would be their new home.

And we see something beautiful here. Just picture that. This touching scene where Yosef the ruler of this great land of Egypt humbles himself before his elderly father and weeps while embracing him for a long time.

Now you'll say if we went up south to inform Pharaoh in Memphis, that his family had arrived down north in Goshen, I know that's a little confusing, but remember there was upper Egypt and lower Egypt. This had more to do with the elevation and the way that the great Nile flowed, um, the elevation in the south was higher.

So it was referred to. Upper Egypt, whereas Goshen was located in lower Egypt, but that was up in the north. Okay. So you'll sit for up south to inform Pharaoh who was in Memphis, that his family had arrived down north in Goshen. It was proper protocol for Pharaoh to announce his rulings face-to-face with representatives of Israel.

So what does Joseph. He preps his brothers with how to respond when questioned by the Pharaoh. And this was really just a formality since, you know, Pharaoh had already decided to plan for Israel and this meeting would make it a hundred percent official that the land of Goshen was a place to be set aside for Israel.

But why. Well, Goshen provided the best land for, for shepherds to raise their flocks, right? Grazing pastures, uh, where the Nile would overflow and, and water this land. And it was a lush rich place, far, far away enough from all the Egyptians that actually hated the shepherds. So, um, it was a good thing that they have the distance and they could kind of grow in peace and, and have the new home for themselves.

And that brings us to chapter 47 before we get into it, listen to it. Rabbi Hirsch has to say about when Yosef presents his brothers to Pharaoh. This is a crucial test of Yusef's character for the Viceroy of Egypt to acknowledge as his own brothers, the Canaanite shepherds who had given him every reason for repudiating them called for highest loyalty and devotion.

So, you'll see if it goes ahead with his pre-planned agenda to formally introduce, um, an announced his family's arrival before Pharaoh and right away Pharaoh asks their occupation. And of course, the five brothers that Yosef took with him, um, to represent the whole clan and the family. Responded that they were shepherds and that they had come to request that Pharaoh mate, let them live in Egypt, has the famine was so severe in their Homeland of Canaan and that they could no longer live there.

Now in verse four, the brothers say, um, so please let your servants live in the land of Goshen, but the term that's used to describe the stay that the Hebrew brothers were thinking was so. That's to stay temporarily to be guests and not citizens in Egypt. Now their father Yaakov knew that they were going to be in Egypt for quite some time, but based on their language in this exchange, the brothers either didn't believe it, or they just weren't informed.

Right. And after all the little song and dance and the formalities here in this meeting, um, Pharaoh has this grand gesture of friendship as he offers the land. Goshen to the Israelites, although he didn't give his response directly to the lowly Hebrew shepherds instead the high and mighty Pharaoh turned and gave his reply to Yosef in a separate meeting from the one that the brothers had with Pharaoh, um, Yaakov is presented to the ruler.

And just imagine this, you have. Humble simple shepherd man, a refugee that's coming before this mighty Pharaoh. And he's blessing him. This may not be as odd as it seems because there was great respect that was shown to the elderly. Okay. And Incheon records don't show Egyptians living nearly as long as the Hebrews did.

So Yaakov at 130 was likely the oldest man that the Pharaoh would have ever met. It's also funny how Yaakov ends up playing off his hundred 30 years. Like it's nothing because you know, his ancestors, they live to be much older than he moving on to verse 13, we see that the Israelites were settling in Goshen while the famine was getting increasingly worse.

So there was no food and everybody. Oh, adoptions and foreigners, they all came to rely very heavily on Josefa, stockpile, green, you see the land, it just wasn't giving much yield for food anymore. Right. And all their money had run out already. So they, they ended up selling their livestock so that they could have green for a year.

In verse 18. After that year was up, the famine had continued and people had no more money and they had no more livestock. So what was it? All they had was their own bodies and their land. So they traded their land for food. And eventually they sold themselves into the service of the Pharaoh. So as people are giving up their money, their land and their Liberty, who are they dealing with?

It was Yosef the Hebrew. So it was through all of Josefa work that Pharaoh had gained all the land of Egypt and power of influence is now reaching into Canaan in the middle east as well. But what good would all that land have been to Pharaoh without anyone to work it. So you also have goes, and he has the people work the lens and he gave them seeds so that the land wouldn't become barriers.

And the arrangement was a 2080 give and keep of the harvest 20% to Pharaoh and 80% for their own households and their little ones. So this range has come. This arrangement is commonly called serfdom. However, in this situation, it was much closer to enslavement rather than a legitimate business transaction.

So, this was definitely a big shift for all the Egyptians and all the foreigners and everybody that's there. All of a sudden they've lost their Liberty and they are enslaved in Egypt. I like the way that Bible teacher, Tom Bradford writes this article, how the people viewed Joseph let's estimate again, what Joseph must have been in the eyes of the people of Egypt and even parts of king.

It was Joseph's plan. Joseph's decrees Joseph's implementations of the plan that caused the people of Egypt and Canaan to become poppers and serfs. It was Joseph's face. The people saw confiscating their land and livestock Joseph while certainly saving their lives. During that period of famine was now there.

He as Pharaoh's representative owned their lands and he owned them. This is a point at which the hatred of the Egyptians to where the Israelites began. And it was a Seminole moment that began the steady path toward fulfillment of the prophecy to Abraham that his descendants would be slick. The current Semite Pharaoh of course could have cared less what the Egyptian people wanted.

But years later, when the Egyptian people over through the hated foreign Hixon rulers of Egypt and installed an Egyptian Pharaoh, they were able to exact retribution for 100 years of built up anger and envy toward these Hebrews led by Joseph who had taken both of their land and their freedom. And that was a quote from Tom Bradford of seed of Abraham minutes.

Well to make matters worse. We see in verse 27, that it was at the same time. These Egyptians were being forced to give up their land in exchange for food, just to survive that of the Israelites. They were acquiring land in Goshen. And in that land that they owned, unlike the Egyptian neighbors, they prospered and grew dramatically in that.

At the end of chapter 47 and verse 28, we see that Yaakov, um, Nearing the end of his life. And he sends that. So he calls his son Yosef over and has him place his hand under his thigh. Remember that expression? Um, essentially he's holding his genitals and, and he's wearing an oath. He's, he's pledging to his father that, um, when his time is up, when Yaakov dies, that he would not be buried.

This foreign land of Egypt, he wanted to be collected back to the place where his father and grandfather, Abraham and Yitzhak were buried as well back in Canaan. But why was it so important to Yaakov that he was buried back in case. I mean, it really wasn't about honor. And it wasn't about nationalism. No, here, this was more about ancestor worship.

Okay. This is just a common understanding there in the middle Eastern cultures that, um, when you die, um, your spirit would be tended and honored by your descendants. Right. And how could that happen? If, if his descendants were going to go back to Canaan, as God had promised. And his spirit would still be in Egypt.

They understood that the spirit remained where the body was. Right. So if a spirit was intended to, it would come to an end and that person's essence would just kind of evaporate for all time. Totally forgotten about right. Further understanding is that the gods of each territory had ruled over their own kingdoms of the day.

And Yaakov wanted to ensure that you know, that he would be taken back to Canaan. So he could live with his ancestors in a place that was ruled by your Hovey. And his spirit would be properly looked after by his decision. But before Yaakov's time was up, there were still some things, some duties that he needed to perform, uh, before he passed, right.

He would need to transfer the rights as a leader and ruler of the family, of Israel, along with all his possessions and all its wealth over to the one who would be the next leader of Israel, wonder who that's going to be. Oh, and on top of that, he'd also have to Dole out all the blessings and instructions for all 12 of his side.

And that's exactly what we're going to be covering during our next axcess learn, study together. Don't miss it. We're almost coming to the close of the book of Genesis and we only have a couple more lessons to go friends. There may come times when you sense God moving you in a certain direction. And it may not always be clear exactly what is going to happen, but we can learn to trust you.

Hope we got more as we go through those big shifts in life. Like it says in Philippians four verse six, don't worry about anything instead pray about everything we could read through scripture and discover more of who he is and how he engages with his people. And remember the holy scriptures reveal his faithful and constant and unchanging character.

It's my prayer friends that you will come to trust God and his prophetic word and his perfect title. And that you would come to see his divine Providence at work, through all the big shifts that he carries you through friends. Thank you so much for joining us for today's axcess learning study. As always, it's such a joy to be able to get around God's word and learn more about his plan and his purposes, and about his amazing love and his promises.

I'm so excited to see where he lead us. May the grace of our Lord issuer and the Shalom of God, our father be with all, I mean,